


Ring

by HotaruGFC (JaclynGFC)



Series: Snapshots: Inktober 2019 prompts [1]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble Collection, Inktober 2019, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 02:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20900462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaclynGFC/pseuds/HotaruGFC
Summary: Black clover short one-shots inspired by the 2019 Inktober prompts. Since I can't draw, I might as well use "Ink" in another way...I may not be using the prompts in the typical way...Day 1: Ring





	1. Ring

The ringing of the bells was something he couldn't quite get used to. The different pitches. The patterns of sounds. And then the incessant gong gong gong announcing the hours.   
The sounds seemed constant, ringing in his mind long after the sounds had stopped traveling through the air. 

Even now, fourteen years later, the ringing sent shivers down his back. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the ringing was one reason he spent so much time out training when he was younger. The silence of the forest and the open spaces between towns had been his solace for many years. The silence of the area had driven him to explore the ramshackle home seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere. The silence had led him to his first squad member and to his home base. And as far as he was concerned, this silent sanctuary would be his until the day he died.

Only then, when his spirit fled his body, would he consent to the ringing of the bells.

He had tried to explain his uneasiness to Julius years ago, but he was not able to find the right words. He was a child then--a mature for his age, ruffian of a child, but a child nonetheless. Explaining had been difficult. He did not know if he could explain it even now.

But the bells, aside from their loud never-ending noise, brought up memories, thoughts he found difficult to handle. Things were much easier when they stayed hidden, buried. The bells with which he was familiar were rung for only two purposes--danger and death. 

The sounds were not quite the same, but the gong of the large bell marking the hours sparked memories within him, none of which were happy. 

Still, his mind replayed the sound hollow tinny sound whenever the bells chimed, bringing forth remembrances of attacks on his village, landslides and tsunami, times he and his siblings had been forced to shelter, and times they had been told to flee. Funerals too sprang from his memory--friends and family long lost and perhaps best forgotten.

The bells brought him heartache he could not explain to anyone. None of them had quite lost what he had lost. None of them could understand. 

And so he ran from them. He hid away, secure in the silence of the rundown old house he called home. Perhaps silence was not the right word, but the raucous voices of his squad, his family far surpassed the constant ringing of the bells and the memories they sparked. 

Yes.

He would take their laughter and yelling any day over the ringing of bells.


	2. Mindless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 prompt: Mindless

"Honestly, Mimosa..." Noelle stopped her forward march and turned toward her cousin as the two girls played in the royal gardens. "You can be so mindless sometimes." She placed her hands on her hips and tried on her best scowl as she looked down at the redhead who stared at the ground where she had fallen. The other girl's shoulders shook slightly at the rebuke and Noelle sighed. She walked over to her fallen cousin and the only one she had ever been able to count as a friend and held out her hand.

"Here. Let me help." She gripped Mimosa's hand tightly once she had placed it in hers and she pulled with all of the strength her young body could muster. Noelle willed for Mimosa to stand beside her, to rise from the fall. 

"Thanks, Noelle. I... I was fine. Really." Mimosa sniffed as she dusted dirt and debris from her dress. "I would have gotten up eventually." 

"Had you been paying attention to where you were going, you wouldn't have fallen in the first place." Noelle pointed out, her voice curt and sharp. She bit her lip at the harsh sound of it. 

Mimosa nodded, but Noelle's sharp eyes saw the drops falling to the ground between them. 

"Are you alright?" She placed her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "Any scrapes or bruises?" 

Mimosa shook her head and met Noelle's concerned gaze with tear-filled eyes. 

"No. I'm alright. And you're right. Even Kirsch says I'm a little ditsy sometimes. That it's not fitting for a royal to be so--what's the word he used?--flaky? Flighty?"   
Mimosa shrugged. Noelle looked at her cousin, her friend for a long moment as Mimosa could no longer hold back the tears streaming down her face. Aside from the tears themselves, however, Mimosa was the image of perfect calm. Noelle knew the calmness was just an act, for she too had been schooled in appearances, and trained in how to maintain the quiet confidence a royal needed. 

And yet, she hated seeing the mask on Mimosa's face. 

She hated it as much as she hated wearing it herself. 

She reached out and wrapped her arms around her cousin feeling her own eyes fill with tears as she held Mimosa tightly. Mimosa sagged against her and Noelle sank to the ground with her weight until they both sat on the grassy lawn. She knew they were likely to be reprimanded if they were caught. While the garden was not off-limits exactly, the caretaker was particular about the grass. Noelle never understood why. 

But now, the two girls were safe, secure in each other's embrace as the stress and requirements hoisted onto their small six-year-old bodies and minds gushed from them both in a river of tears. They hugged and they cried until the tears stopped flowing. And when they let each other go, they did so not because the pain had fled, but because they could cry no longer.

They sat instead on the grass, picking at the narrow green blades, unable or unwilling to move. Mimosa stripped a blade of grass absently as Noelle rubbed her hand over the softness of the vegetation. 

"Kirsch took me to see the lower rings yesterday," Mimosa said breaking the silence.

"Oh?" Noelle's heart beat faster and she fought the jealousy which had sprung up. Her own siblings never took her anywhere or did anything with her. Aside from stealing her toys and call her a mistake.

"Yeah. He showed me why royals are better. Well, that's what he said anyway."

In the few actual conversations she had been allowed with any of her siblings, Noelle had heard similar statements about being royalty. About how it made them special.

"What did you see?"

"People. Just people. Some kids like us."

Noelle didn't know what she had expected, but she hadn't quite expected that answer.

"Kirsch said they were bad people, but they just seemed like people to me." Mimosa stretched out on the grass and looked up at the blue sky. Noelle pulled her knees to her chest and laid her head on them.

Noelle had never been outside of the upper ring of the city, had only rarely been outside of the palace. She wished she could see these people for herself, to see if they were good or bad. Her own brother had called the people in the lower rings scum, worthless, mindless, but he also called her those things as well. Noelle wondered if she would have been happier with the rest of the mindless scum. 

"They might have done bad things, but I'm sure they had a reason," Mimosa said as she gazed at the clouds overhead. "They looked like they cared for each other."

Noelle wondered what Solid would think if he heard Mimosa talk now. Would he correct her, convince her they were as mindless, as worthless as he said?

As Mimosa spoke more about her experiences, Noelle concluded that people everywhere were people. Sure, sometimes they might be mindless, but that did not mean they were heartless.

No matter what, Noelle told herself. No matter how mindless others thought her to be, she would never, ever be heartless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some words and grammatical choices were made intentionally to reflect the six-year-old mind doing the thinking.


	3. Bait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 prompt: Bait
> 
> (I'm trying to catch up...)

The pudding sat glistening on the plate. The aroma filled the air. He wanted to take a big bite of it, to savor the creaminess of it, to let the flavor dance on his tongue.

But a weird silence in the house forced him to turn away. 

He looked over to the sitting area at the worn-out couches clustered in a way that might have fostered conversation had anyone been in the mood. 

"Magna, aren't you going to eat your pudding?" Longing filled Charmy's voice as she looked at the untouched desert. When he glanced at her, dribbles of saliva clung to the corners of her lips. He glanced back to the couch where his dearest friend, for a long time his only friend, sat. 

Something had been very wrong with Luck the last few days, and he was starting to get worried. The fight-crazy blond had not tried picking a fight with him even once since everything had gone back to normal, since the sentencing, since their exile had been announced. 

Magna picked up the plate with the carefully formed jiggly pudding sitting on it. He knew from experience it would be tasty. He just hoped it would be enough bait to lure out the old Luck.

"Not right now, Charmy." He walked over to where the sullen lightning mage sat and placed the plate on a table between the couches before he sat down himself, across from Luck. "I think I'll save it for later." 

Magna leaned back against the sofa and smirked at Luck. 

He watched as Luck's eyes darted from wherever his mind had gone to the pudding. He saw Luck lick his lips quickly before his eyes flicked upwards. Magna's smile widened ever so slightly, daring Luck as their eyes met. 

Luck's gaze returned to the pudding on the table and his crazy smile split his face.

Hook, line, and sinker...

**Author's Note:**

> toying with some ideas about Yami's background and childhood.


End file.
